Pineapple coring and recoring

ABSTRACT

Pineapples are precored to leave a tubular backbone of core material around the precore hole, which augments the strength of the fruit. The precored pineapples are then peeled, axially slit into halves, and the halves inspected and trimmed. The semitubular backbone of the core material is next removed from each half by a recoring operation. A rotary tubular knife is employed for recoring while the pineapples are advancing along guide bars that fit into the core recesses.

United States Patent Vadas 51 Feb. 15, 1972 {54] PINEAPPLE CORING ANDRECORING [72] Inventor: Leslie Vadas, Los Gatos, Calif.

[73] Assignee: Castle & Cooke, inc.

[22] Filed: July 13, 1970 211 Appl. No.: 54,177

[52] US. Cl ..l46/6, 146/52 [51 Int. Cl ..A0ld 43/06, A23n 3/ 12 [58]Field of Search 146/78, 224, 6, 52, 164; 83/1,

[56] References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS Arengo-Jones 146/52 XLoveland ..l46/6 X Armstrong et al ..l46l52 Primary Examiner-William S.Lawson Assistant Examiner-Leon Gilden Attorney-F. W. Anderson and C. E.Tripp [57] ABSTRACT Pineapples are precored to leave a tubular backboneof core material around the precore hole, which augments the strength ofthe fruit. The precored pineapples are then peeled, axially slit intohalves, and the halves inspected and trimmed. The semitubular backboneof the core material is next removed from each half by a recoringoperation. A rotary tubular knife is employed for recoring while thepineapples are advancing along guide bars that fit into the corerecesses.

6 Claims, 20 Drawing Figures PAIENIEIJFEB 15 I972 v 8. 642.043

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sum 7 or 7 TI E lEl BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE PRIOR ART The process ofthe present invention represents-an improvement in preparing pineapplesor the like for strip peeling, as disclosed in the U.S. patent todeBack, Ser. No. 751,445, filed Aug. 9, I968, assigned to Castle &Cooke, Inc.; as well as an improvement in preparing the fruit for use ofthe method and apparatus of the copending U.S. application of Vadas,Ser. No. 855,520, filed Sept. 5, 1969, also assigned to Castle & Cooke,Inc.

In the aforesaid Vadas application, whole pineapples are cored, thecrowns are trimmed, and the pineapples are supported at their core holefor a rotary strip-peeling operation. After trimming the butts of thepeeled pineapples, the pineapples are axially slit into halves. Thehalves are guided by their core holes along platforms having guide barsthat fit into the core recesses. The halves are inspected and trimmed,and then passed through a slicing machine and possibly a chunker formaking segments.

The U.S. patent to Popeil 2,991,814, issued July II, 1961, disclosessupportingpotatoes on ribbed supports and forcing the potatoes overcorrugated blades for forming corrugated potato chips. The U.S. patentto Nicoll et al. 2,187,326, Jan. 16, I940 discloses a pineapple cuttingmachine wherein precored cylinders are sliced in half and supported withtheir sliced faces upward while they are passed over a rotary recoringtube parallel to the plane of pineapple advance during recording.

The U.S. patent to Duncan 1,769,664, July I, 1930 shows a fruitpreparation machine wherein the cut faces of fruit such as pears aresupported on spaced belts that are advanced intermittently. During pauseof the belts an intermittently rotatable looped coring knife removes theseed cells from the fruit.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION It nas been found that the forces engenderedduring rotary strip peeling operations of the type disclosed in theaforesaid deBack and Vadas disclosures are considerable. Soft or weakfruit sections may be torn out of the fruit during peeling. Also, whenthe entire core is removed before peeling, after the fruit has beenpeeled and slit into halves, the fruit is fragile and can be damaged bythe handling operations necessary for inspection and trimming, as wellas during the slicing (and possibly the chunking) operations thatfollow.

In accordance with the present invention, adequate structural strengthis imparted to the pineapple during peeling, trimming, and otherprocessing operations after the peeled pineapples have been cut intohalves. This improvement is effected by precoring the pineapples beforethey are peeled in a manner which leaves a tubular backbone of corematerial along the pineapple axis. The precored pineapple is supportedby the precore hole for trimming and peeling and the tubular backbone ofcore material remaining in the fruit reinforces the peeled portions ofthe fruit. This resists torquing of peeled fruit portions from theunpeeled body of the pineapple under the action of the peeling knives.

In the preferred form of the invention, the cored, peeled pineapple,having the aforesaid tubular backbone of core material, is peeled,trimmed at its ends and axially slit into halves. These halves areguided by guide bars, ribs of the like, to further inspection andtrimming stations. Since the semitubular backbone of core material isleft intact in the body of the fruit, it strengthens the fruit againstbreakage and segmentation during these processing steps.

Before the material is sliced under the present invention, the tubularbackbone of core material is removed from the pineapple halves byadvancing the pineapples over an inclined, rotary tubular knife. Thetrailing portions of the pineapple halves are guided by bars that fitinto the precore recesses and the end of the tubular knife is so formedand so inclined relative to the pineapple support that holddown forcesare imparted to the fruit via the ribbon or strip of core material thatis being removed by the knife. The enlarged semitubular core hole (whichis now devoid of core material) is guided downstream of the knife byanother guide bar that fits within the recore recess. The pineapplesthus recored are ready for slicing and possibly for chunking or otherfinal processing operations before packing.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS whole pineapple.

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing trimming the crown of the whole pineappleafter precoring.

FIG. 4 is a diagram showing a strip-peeling operation on a precoredpineapple.

FIG. 5 is a diagram showing trimming the butt end of the peeledpineapple.

FIG. 6 is a diagram showing the slitting operation on the peeled andtrimmed pineapple.

FIG. 7 is a diagram showing how the pineapple halves are guided andpresented for inspection and trimming.

FIG. 8 is a diagram showing the recoring operation on the pineapplehalves in accordance with the present invention.

FIG. 9 is a diagram illustrating processes subsequent to recoring, suchas slicing the halves.

FIG. 10 is a plan of the apparatus shown in FIG. 8.

FIG. 11 is an enlarged fragmentary section through the recoringapparatus.

FIG. 12 is a still larger partial section through the-recoring knifeassembly.

FIG. 13 is a plan view of the recoring knife assembly of FIG. 12.

FIG. 14 is a still larger fragmentary section illustrating theprinciples of the recoring operation of the present invention.

FIGS. l5, l6, and 17 are sections taken as indicated on FIG. 1 1.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION The present invention will be illustrated inconnection with the processing of pineapples. FIG. 1 is a cross sectionof a typical pineapple P showing the core I0, the flesh 12, the skin 14,including the eyes, the butt end 16, and the crown end 18.

FIG. IA is a transverse section through the pineapple after it has beenprecored in accordance with the present invention. A precore hole 20 hasbeen formed in the pineapple by removing the central cylindrical portionof the core 10, leaving a tubular backbone portion 22 of the corematerial in accordance with the present invention.

FIG. 1B shows a pineapple half H after it has been peeled and slit. Herea semitubular backbone of core material 22a surrounds the precore holeportion 20a and provides a backbone of core material around the precorehole for strengthening the pineapple half during trimming, inspectionand processing.

FIG. 1C shows the pineapple half H after it has been recored inaccordance with the present invention, to remove the semitubularbackbone of material 220 shown in FIG. 1B. This leaves a semicylindricalrecore recess 24 that can be used for guiding the pineapple duringprocessing as will be explained presently.

FIGS. 2-6 are diagrammatic views illustrating typical processing stepsthat precede the recoring apparatus of the present invention, forproducing the pineapple elements shown in FIGS. l-IB.

In FIG. 2 the pineapple P is precored to produce the precore hole 20previously described. This can be accomplished by techniques well knownin the prior art, such as the introduction of a coring tube 30 throughthe pineapple while the latter is centered using conventional apparatus(not shown). A stop 31 restrains the pineapple against the force of thecoring tube 30;

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing how the crown end 18 of the pineapple isremoved before peeling. A spindle 32 is inserted in the precore hole 20previously formed and backed up by the tubular backbone 22 of corematerial. The crown end 18 of the pineapple is sliced off by means of arotating knife 34 in accordance with conventional techniques.

FIG. 4 is a simplified diagram illustrating a double-knife strip-peelingoperation performed on the pineapple, such as that carried out in theaforesaid deBack patent. A spindle 36, backed up by a driving collar 38receives the pineapple with the spindle protruding through the precorehole 20. It will be noted that the tubular backbone 22 of core materialis present and reinforces the pineapple during the peeling operation. Inthe peeler (illustrated diagrammatically), a base 40 mounts a rotor 42,the latter carrying a first-cut knife 44 which removes the shell of thepineapple and a second-cut knife 46 which removes the eyes. During thisoperation, the peeled portion of the pineapple is reinforced by thebackbone 22 which inhibits tearing loose the flesh and chunking off partor all of the peeled portion of the fruit.

FIG. is a diagram showing how to trim the butt 16 from the peeledpineapple for this operation. A spindle 50 is inserted in the precorehole 20 for guiding the pineapple while the butt end 16 is being trimmedby a rotary knife 52.

FIG. 6 is a diagram showing how the pineapple can be sliced into halvesand eighths. The peeled and trimmed pineapple P of FIG. 5 is slid downover a vertical post 54 which guides the pineapple by the precore hole20, backed up by the backbone 22 of core material.

The pineapples are sliced into halves by a rotary knives 56, 58 and eachhalf is guided by a rib 60 that is received by the precore hole portion20a (see also FIG. 7). The rib 60 is supported on a guide track 61 and asimilar track 62 supports another rib 60a for the complimentarypineapple half.

FIG. 7 is a diagram showing how the pineapple halves H can be conveyedalong horizontal paths for inspection and trimming. Reference is made tothe aforesaid Vadas application for additional details of thisoperation. Briefly the pineapple is guided on the tracks 61, 62previously mentioned and moved along horizontal portions of these tracksby pushers 64, 640, the latter projecting up through slots 65, 65aformed in the respective guide ribs 60, 60a. The pusher fingers 64, 64acan be mounted on endless belts 66, 660, it being understood the detailsof the means for conveying the pineapples are not critical to thepresent invention. The essential feature is that the pineapple halves,as illustrated in FIG. 1B, embody the semitubular backbone of corematerial 22a during this operation which reinforces them while they arebeing handled and trimmed as required.

FIG. 8 is a side view diagram of the recoring operation of the presentinvention and FIG. is a plan view thereof. The pineapple halves H areplaced on and guided by ribs 70 which fit into the recore hole portionsa formed in the semitubular backbone material 221. The pineapple halvesare advanced along the guide ribs 70 by conveyor belts 72, 74 whichsupport the sliced faces of the halves. As seen in FIG. 8, the belts 72,74 are guided over pulleys 74a, 74b, and 74c. The pineapple halves arethus pushed over a recore knife which is a rotatable tubular knife thatremoves the semitubular backbone material 22a as a strip and forms therecore hole 24 previously illustrated in FIG. 1C.

Although the recoring knife 76 is at an acuteangle to the path of motionof the pineapple halves and exerts a holddown motionthereon, it iscontemplated that a leaf holddown spring 77 can be fitted above theknife to ensure that the recoring operation will be properly initiatedand maintained during process of the pineapple halves past the knife 76.The recore knife 76 is driven by an electric motor 78 and belt 80, itbeing understood that the mounting of the knife will be described indetail presently.

A downstream guide rib 79 of the diameter having a radius that matchesthe radius of the recore hole 24 is disposed downstream of the rotarycore knife 76 for further guiding the recored pineapple halves to aprocessing apparatus. The recored pineapple halves are picked up by apusher conveyor 81 shown at the right of these diagrams, which conveyormay employ pusher fingers 82 for advancing the recored pineapple halvesto a slicer. FIG. 9 is a diagram showing how the pickup conveyor 81advances the recored pineapple halves H to a cross conveyor 84 forslicing by a knife assembly 86. The details of this operation are notcritical to the present invention and reference may be made to theaforesaid Vadas application to an apparatus suitable for conveying andslicing pineapple halves formed in accordance with the presentinvention.

FIG. 11 is a vertical section through the recoring knife 76 andassociated equipment.

FIG. 12 is an enlarged fragmentary section of the knife assembly, andFIG. 13 is a plan of FIG. 11. Reference is now made to these figures aswell as to the sectional use of FIGS. 15-17 for showing structuraldetails of the preferred embodiment of the invention.

As best seen in FIG. 15, the guide rib 70, that leads the pineapplehalves to the recore knife actually projects up wardly from a narrowplate or rib 90, which rib has an extension or tongue 92 (FIGS. 11, 12and 14) that is bent down and extends through the tubular coring knife76. The upper face 92a of the tongue 92 lies on a diameter of thetubular coring knife (FIGS. 16 and 17).

The coring knife assembly 76 includes a knife (FIGS. 11 and 12) that isformed of stainless steel tubing and in the embodiment shown has anoutside diameter of 1% inches and a wall thickness of about 0.040inches. The free end of the knife tube is beveled at 102 to form thecutting edge and the angle between the bevel 102 and the axis of theknife 100 equals the angle of inclination a (FIG. 12) between the axisof the knife and the path of motion of the conveyor system for thepineapple halves. In the embodiment shown, the angle a is 10. Thisdesign places the uppermost element of the knife bevel 102 parallel tothe path of motion of the pineapple halves.

The inner end of the knife tube 100 is brazed to a threaded collar 104(FIG. 12) which is threaded at 105 into a rotating hollow thimble 106having a bore 108 for receiving the projecting tongue 92a that supportsthe semitubular strip of core material 22a as it is removed by theknife. The thimble 106 mounts external bearings 110, 111 (FIG. 11) whichrotatably mount the thimble in a fixed sleeve 112. The fixed sleeve 112is welded to arcuate cradles 114 (FIG. 12) which project upwardly from abaseplate 116. The baseplate 116 is bolted to a bracket 118 (FIG. 11)that is secured by means of ears 120 to a horizontal frame element 122.A crossbar 124 mounts the other end of the bracket 1 18 to the frameelement 122 as seen in FIG. 1 l. A bracket 125projects from the frame122 for supporting the holddown spring 77.

Referring to FIG. 12, the thimble bearing 110 is flanged at 110a toaxially restrain the thimble in the sleeve 122 in one direction and thebearing 111 is flanged at lllato axially locate the thimble in the otherdirection. The thimble 106 is axially retained in the sleeve 112 by adrive pulley 126 keyed to the thimble at 127 and retained by a thimblenut 128. The pulley 126 is driven by the timing belt 80 previouslymentioned. Thus, rotation of the timing belt and the drive pulley 126turns the thimble 106 within the fixed sleeve 112 and hence turns thetubular knife tube 100 so that the cutting edge 102 thereof will removethe semitubular strip of backbone material 22a from the precoredpineapple halves as previously described. In the embodiment of theinvention being described, the knife 100 is rotated at about 200 rpm.

The longitudinal frame elements 122 mount angles 130, 132 (FIG. 11)which support the lead-in guide rib 70 and similarly angles 134, 136support the take away guide rib 79 for the recored pineapple halves.

FIG. 14 which is an enlarged diagrammatic view of the nose of the knife100 and its cutting action shows how this assembly produces a holddownforce on the pineapple half H being recored. As shown by the vectordiagram in FIG. 14, the cutting edge 102 of the knife 100 exerts africtional force on the pineapple core along the axis of the knife,which force is indicated at f. This force must be overcome by theconveying action of the belts 72, 74. Since the inclination angle a issmall the knife exerts a relatively large force on the strip 22a that isnormal to the axis of the knife and this force is indicated at n. Theresultant force of the knife on the pineapple is indicated at r. Theresultant force r has a vertical component b which can be considered tobe the holddown force that supplements the force of gravity in retainingthe pineapple halves on the belt 72, 74 while they are being recored.

The sections of FIGS. 15-17 shows stages in a recoring operation. FIG.15, as previously described, shows how the guide rib 70 fits up withinthe precore hole portion a surrounded by the semitubular body of corematerial 22a as the pineapple is being conveyed by the belts 72, 74.

FIG. 16 illustrates how the semitubular body of core material 22a isbeing removed to form the recore aperture 24 with the body 220 supportedon the diametral surface 92a of the tongue 92, inside the knife 100.

FIG. 17 is a section taken farther downstream of the knife tube 100 andillustrates continuation of the action shown in FIG. 16. Here the recorehole 24 has been picked up by the downstream guide rib 79. Thesemitubular body 22a of core material is being guided through the knifeby the tongue 92.

In operation, the steps required to produce peeled pineapple halveswhich have been precored to produce the precore hole 20a have beenpreviously described and will not be repeated. When the pineapple halvesH are guided or placed onto the recoring belts 72, 74 they are guided bythe ribs 70 upstre..n of the knife assembly 76. As the pineapple halffirst engages the rotating cutting edge of the knife 100 the semitubularbackbone 22a of core material is removed as a strip which is confinedbetween the wall of the tubular bore 101 of the tubular knife and theupper face 920 of the tongue 92. As the pineapple halves progress overthe rotating knife, the removed core material 220 snakes its way downalong the tongue 92, passes through the bore 108 in the thimble 106 andout the free end of the knife assembly. The pineapples thus recored arepushed down along the recore guide rib 79 and on for further processingas previously described. The small knife inclination angle a, which ispreferably about 10 results in a holddown force on the pineapple halvesduring the recoring operation (FIG. 12). The semitubular bodies of thecore material 220 are relatively flexible and readily accommodate to thespace between the interior walls of knife assembly and the tongue 72,for passage out of the recoring assembly. Having been inspected andtrimmed before recoring, the pineapple halves remain intact afterrecoring, and hence a large percentage of good slices, etc., is obtainedby subsequent processing.

Although the best mode contemplated for carrying out the presentinvention has been herein shown and described, it will be apparent thatmodification and variation may be made without departing from what isregarded to be the subject matter of the invention.

What I claim is: v

1. Apparatus for removing core material from pineapple halves comprisinga planar support for the severed fruit faces, means forming an aperturein said fruit support, a knife mounted for rotation beneath said supportand having a curved cutting end that projects through said supportaperture, means for axially advancing fruit halves over said knife, andaligned semicylindrical fruit guide bars on the upstream and downstreamsides of said support aperture for engaging the core recesses, thedownstream fruit guide bar having a radius that is larger than that ofthe upstream guide bar by substantially the thickness of the corematerial that is removed from the fruit during recoring.

2. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein said knife is tubular and isinclined at an acute angle with said fruit support.

3. The apparatus of claim 2, wherein said acute angle is about 10.

4. The apparatus of claim 2, wherein a tongue extends from thedownstream edge of said fruit half support and down along substantiallythe midplane of the interior of said knife for supporting the severedstrip of core material.

5. The apparatus of claim 2, wherein the cutting end of said knife isexternally beveled at substantially the same angle as that of the knifeinclination to said support.

6. The apparatus of claim 5, wherein said angle is about 10.

1. Apparatus for removing core material from pineapple halves comprisinga planar support for the severed fruit faces, means forming an aperturein said fruit support, a knife mounted for rotation beneath said supportand having a curved cutting end that projects through said supportaperture, means for axially advancing fruit halves over said knife, andaligned semicylindrical fruit guide bars on the upstream and downstreamsides of said support aperture for engaging the core recesses, thedownstream fruit guide bar having a radius that is larger than that ofthe upstream guide bar by substantially the thickness of the corematerial that is removed from the fruit during recoring.
 2. Theapparatus of claim 1, wherein said knife is tubular and is inclined atan acute angle with said fruit support.
 3. The apparatus of claim 2,wherein said acute angle is about 10* .
 4. The apparatus of claim 2,wherein a tongue extends from the downstream edge of said fruit halfsupport and down along substantially the midplane of the interior ofsaid knife for supporting the severed strip of core material.
 5. Theapparatus of claim 2, wherein the cutting end of said knife isexternally beveled at substantially the same angle as that of the knifeinclination to said support.
 6. The apparatus of claim 5, wherein saidangle is about 10* .